Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

Written by Min Jin Lee
Read by Allison Hiroto
Format: M4B
Unabridged

Pachinko

By: Min Jin Lee
Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
Unabridged
Release date: 02-07-17
Language: English
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Rating: 4.3/5 (384 ratings)
Format: M4B

Publisher’s Summary:

A new tour de force from the best-selling author of Free Food for Millionaires, for fans of A Fine Balance and Cutting for Stone.

Profoundly moving and gracefully told, Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them. Betrayed by her wealthy lover, Sunja finds unexpected salvation when a young tubercular minister offers to marry her and bring her to Japan to start a new life.

So begins a sweeping saga of exceptional people in exile from a homeland they never knew and caught in the indifferent arc of history. In Japan, Sunja’s family members endure harsh discrimination, catastrophes, and poverty, yet they also encounter great joy as they pursue their passions and rise to meet the challenges this new home presents. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, they are bound together by deep roots as their family faces enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

Critic Reviews:

“If proof were needed that one family’s story can be the story of the whole world, then Pachinko offers that proof. Min Jin Lee’s novel is gripping from start to finish, crossing cultures and generations with breathtaking power. Pachinko is a stunning achievement, full of heart, full of grace, full of truth.” (Erica Wagner, author of Ariel’s Gift and Seizure)

“Both for those who love Korea, as well as for those who know no more than Hyundai, Samsung, and kimchi, this extraordinary book will prove a revelation of joy and heartbreak. I could not stop turning the pages, and wished this most poignant of sagas would never end. Min Jin Lee displays a tenderness and wisdom ideally matched to an unforgettable tale that she relates just perfectly.” (Simon Winchester, New York Times best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman and Korea: A Walk through the Land of Miracles)

“A deep, broad, addictive history of a Korean family in Japan enduring and prospering through the 20th century.” (The Guardian)

My Review:

A slow burn, hang in there, because it is ultimately a very fulfilling and moving story.